Pripyat, Oct 2013

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For those who don't know - and to be honest, I didn't until my planned trip, Pripyat is the name of the town that was built to house the workers of the Chernobyl Power plant. It is located about 2km from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (ChNPP)

When the town was founded in 1970 it was a very modern and the facilities were incredible. I am sure that at the time, people would have been very jealous of living in such a great new town.

At the outskirts, the town sign is now more of a memorial than merely marking the town limits

At the time of the accident it had a population of around 49,000 people. This figure included people from over 134 different nationalities from within the USSR. The average age in Pripyat was just 26 and each year saw more than 1000 children born.

I got the impression that the main government buildings were decorated in a way that promoted how proud the USSR was of achievements across multiple areas. This is the mural in what was the Post Office

Within the town a newly constructed amusement park was built. Before it would ever see a single child, the explosion at the power plant turned the area in to a barren wasteland.

This is the now infamous ferris wheel as viewed from the boxing ring located in the Cultural Centre

Another well documented view is the bumper cars

One of the things that struck me when I got off the bus on arrival at Pripyat was the sound, or rather lack of sound. Just the wind through the trees. No laughter, no town murmur, no traffic, no birds, no dogs, nothing. Just the rustling of the leaves in the light wind.

I made it to one of the rooftops, and the scary thing is, on the night of the explosion, residents also did the same. Whilst watching the fire, they would have had no idea that they were receiving a massive dose of radiation too.

There are many stories of heroism during that night and the days and nights that followed. From the firefighters who were sent to battle the raging ferno with no clue as to what they were really dealing with to, what is in my opinion, the most heroic action - if there could be such a classification....

The reactor core was melting through the concrete structure of the build. As it bore through, it was heading towards a large pool of water - massive pool of water. According to some accounts, this pool was a back up to the cooling systems of the power plant. The main thing to understand though is that this pool, were the reactor core and surrounding radioactive mush, to come in contact with each other, the water would turn to super heated steam and cause a massive explosion. This explosion would have turned the most of Europe in to a wasteland. Frankly, neither you nor I would be sat here today had that happened.

In order for this to be avoided, the pool had to be drained. Valeri Bezpalov and Alexie Ananenko and Boris Baranov volunteered. Wearing only basic suba gear, they dove in to the highly toxic radioactive water to drain the pool. They knew they were diving to their deaths, but they did it.

There are so many images from the very short visit to this place, please feel free to check out my flickr album

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April 26, 1986. One single day, that changed the day of numerous people overnight. One day, that entered the annals of world´s history. It was the day, when reactor no. 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was destroyed after a power failure simulation gone wrong. On that day in April 1986 the nightsky exploded. The Chernobyl disaster released as much radioactive material into the environment as 400 atomic bombs would have done.

I think, a lot has already been written about that topic and the Chernobyl catastrophe. A topic that I´ve always been fascinated of for many different reasons. Years ago, I told myself, I would never ever visit the zone. Last year, I´ve changed my mind and visited Chernobyl in September. I´m glad, I did.

Around the nuclear power plant:

Kindergarten of the former village "Kopachi"

Kopachi was a former village near Chernobyl, today located within the Chernobyl exclusion zone. After the nuclear catastrophe in 1986, it was hit hard by nuclear fallout and had to be evacuated. All former houses were demolished and buried. Today, every mound of earth with a warning sign in it, marks the remains of one of the former houses. Only the kindergarten has survived time and does still exist.

Pripyat

"[...] we lived in Pripyat, near the reactor. I can still see the bright- crimson glow, it was like the reactor was glowing. This
wasn´t an ordinary fire, it was some kind of emanation. It was pretty. [....] We didn´t know, that death could be so beautiful."

(Nadezhda Vygovskaya (evacuee from Pripyat), excerpt from the book: Voices from Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexievich)

Middle School No. 3:

Palace of Culture "Energetik":

Amusement park:

Hospital No. 126

The hospital no. 126 consisted of 410 beds and was - among three further clinics - the biggest medical center of Pripyat. Until today the basement of the hospital is not only one of the most contaminated places of the Chernobyl exclusion zone, but of the world. Still, the pitch-dark cellar, holds the suits of the six firemen that were the first to work on the wrecked reactor and afterwards were instantly brought to the city hospital. Of course they received a lethal dosis of radiation. Consequently, they died shortly after their operation of radiation sickness. Still, 30 years after the catastrophe, they are so highly cotaminated that you would receive a lethal dosis in only short time.

Café Pripyat near the same-named river:

Post Office:

Above the roofs of Pripyat:

There´s no better way to get a glimpse of the former size of the city than standing on a 16-storey-building, where the following captures were taken. For me, standing up there, was by far one of the most impressive experiences of my whole life. Only short time after the hard climb up the stairs, one thing really hit me in an instant: an indescribable silence I´ve never witnessed before. No cars, no air planes, no humans. Even birds are hardly singing. It´s probably hard to imagine for lots of people, at least for those living in densely populated areas. Even during a walk in the woods, one normally can hear the typical background noise of civilization. Suddenly, that noise was gone. My first thought was: dead silence. That impression is still affecting me deeply. The fact to look down on former traces of human lives only add to the unreal atmosphere. A whole city is at my feet and all I can hear is simply - nothing. I take a last look at the wrecked reactor no. 4 in the distance that soon will be disappeared underneath the new so-called New Safe Confinement (NSC). Despite the peaceful atmosphere, I still have the uneasy feeling of being a belated witness of a catastrophe which is hard to comprehend.

DUGA - "The Russian Woodpecker"

The DUGA-array was part of an over-the-horizon radar system (OTH) and was located near the former Chernobyl nuclear power plant. It´s highest antenna was around 150 metres high and does still exist. The range of the array was around 9,000 kilometers. During the cold war era, the radar station was of course like similar stations top secret.

Already at the end of the 1970's an interfering signal was received by short-wave radio stations. It sounded like a woodpecker that´s why it was later called "the Russian Woodpecker". It was early suspected, that those sounds might belong to a Soviet over-the-horizon radar. When reactor 4 of Chernobyl blew up, the OTH system could not be kept secret any longer. Thus, the theory was confirmed

There are also many conspiracy theories concerning the radar station. According to those theories, mind control and the possibility of influencing the weather were made possible by DUGA.

Not really derelict, but it was a quality mooch!!!
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The General Cemetery of All Souls, Kensal Green, is one of England's oldest and most beautiful public burial grounds

The plan for London's first garden cemetery was initiated by the barrister George Frederick Carden, who was inspired by a visit to Père-Lachaise in Paris in 1821. Alert both to the need for new burial grounds, and the commercial potential of the venture, Carden founded the General Cemetery Company in 1830, with influential supporters including Andrew Spottiswoode MP and the banker John Dean Paul of Rodburgh

The cemetery was established by Act of Parliament which had its final reading in July 1832, during a cholera epidemic -- a coincidence that implicitly made the case for reform.

The Bishop of London consecrated the first 48 acres in January 1833, and the first funeral was conducted a week later.

From the funeral of HRH The Duke of Sussex in 1843 to that of his nephew HRH The Duke of Cambridge in 1904, Kensal Green was the most fashionable cemetery in England

Its notable personalities include some 650 members of the titled nobility and over 550 individuals noted in the Dictionary of National Biography.

Kensal Green is the resting place of the engineers Sir Marc Isambard Brunel and Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the mathematician Charles Babbage, and the novelists Wilkie Collins, Anthony Trollope and William Makepeace Thackeray; Lord Byron's wife, Oscar Wilde's mother, Charles Dickens' in-laws and Winston Churchill's daughter; a cross-dressing Army doctor and the surgeon who attended Nelson at Trafalgar; the creator of Pears' Soap, and the original WH Smith; the funambulist Blondin and the Savoyard George Grossmith; the first man to cross Australia from south to north, and the last man to fight a duel in England; the Duke's nephew who ruined the richest heiress of the day, and the English adventuress who became a French baronne disgraced by the accusation of murder.

right after being awake for 36 hours having a run in with everyones favorite friends and plan b leaving the four of us caked head to toe in mud soaking wet and ready to call it a night we then get a text from ojay an hour later we find are selves in Victoria arches Manchester ...
visited with ojay, obscurity,maniac, wevsky stayed in the car with a four pack kicking himself
a big for ojay being tour guide ..
a little history ....
The Victoria Arches were a series of arches built in the embankment of the River Irwell in Manchester. They served as business premises, landing stages for Steam packet riverboats, and also as World War II air-raid shelters. They were accessed from wooden staircases which descended from Victoria Street.
Regular flooding of the river resulted in the closure of the steam-packet services in the early 20th century, and the arches were used for general storage. In World War II the arches were converted for use as air raid shelters.The staircases were removed in the latter part of the 20th century.
on with the pics ...

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